Mike’s eNews – 2 September 2016

Contents

Membership & Levy Fees 2017

EGM, Venue change

Orienteers Sporting Backgrounds

WOC 2015 & the Peoples’ Choice

Disciplinary Action

Scottish 6 Days

Orienteering Foundation –  News

Coaching Conference 2017

Independent Director Appointment

British Orienteering Website

Images & Image Taking

Brian Porteous, Elected Life President of the IOF

Control Descriptions Review

Please feel free to forward this eNews to your members; it will be published on the eNews page at http://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/page/enews; if you’d rather send them a link please feel free to do so.

Membership & Levy Fees 2017

The consultation with members is continuing and we would encourage you and your members to take part in the survey that remains open until next Friday, 9 September. It is short and will only take 2 minutes to complete – and we need your views to help the Board make decisions about the proposal to be put before members at the EGM in October.

Much was written and discussed prior to the 2016 AGM and is available on the website for those people wishing to refresh their thinking on this matter. An article summarising the situation to date and the options can be found here and a brief summary is provided with the survey.

We would really appreciate your views and ideas, the survey can be found here and should take only a few minutes to complete – it is short!

The discussions with association chairs have been completed and as anticipated polarised views have been received from some associations. Clubs and Associations are invited to make their views known directly to the Board by emailing your views to info@britishorienteering.org.uk.

Input so far is in favour of a ‘middle’ solution somewhere around the £7.50 senior membership and £1.75 levy but there are some wanting a lower membership/higher levy and others wanting a higher membership/lower levy. Clearly we are not going to be able to please everyone! Compromise is needed.

At the next Board meeting the input provided will be discussed and a proposal will be drafted for the EGM to be held in conjunction with the Club & Association Conference on Saturday 29 October 2016.

Many thanks for your help in resolving this matter and I hope that after such an extended consultation process, members will appreciate and respect the opinions of others and be able to agree acceptable compromise position.

EGM Venue Change

Unfortunately, due to the rescheduling of some refurbishments at the NFU Headquarters in Stratford the EGM venue has had to be changed.

The EGM, and this year's Association and Club Conference will now take place at The Priory Rooms, Quaker Meeting House, 40 Bull Street, Birmingham B4 6AF, in the Main Meeting House. The Priory Rooms is located in the centre of Birmingham approximately 0.6 miles from Birmingham New Street Station, 0.2 miles from Snow Hill Station and 0.3 miles from Moor Street Station.

Although the venue itself doesn't offer any parking, they do have discounted rates at the nearby Londonderry House NCP, the NCP provides secure parking and is only a short walk from the conference centre. More information on directions and transport can be found here.

The EGM will start at 11 o'clock on Saturday 29th October 2016 which will then be followed by the Association and Club Conference. The Conference will finish at 16:30 as the room is only available until 17:00. More information and the agendas, will be available shortly.

Orienteers Sporting Backgrounds

Many of you, over 650, took part in a survey to gather information about the sporting backgrounds of orienteers. A big thank you to all these people; it was a great response.

Whilst some data was easy to analyse the free text supplied in response to some survey questions was extremely interesting and valuable but far more challenging to analyse! Once the work is complete it will be published on the website and will make for interesting reading.

This information has already been valuable in developing our Strategic Plan and will be even more valuable once the analysis has been completed over the next week or so.

Once again, a big thank you to those that responded to the survey – including the member who clearly feels he has now completed enough surveys and wants to be left in peace to enjoy his orienteering! I know and agree it’s really boring to complete survey after survey but it is one of the few ways we have of finding your views and understanding our members wants, needs and likes in relation to orienteering.

Just in case you wanted to take part – I’m sorry the survey has now closed.

WOC 2015 & the Peoples’ Choice

I hope many of you saw the piece on the BO website about WOC2015 and the Scottish 6 Days being a candidate in the Peoples' Choice category; if you haven’t it’s worth a read.

Thanks to everyone who voted on the People's choice category. The winner will be announced at the Scottish Event Awards on Wednesday 5 October, at the Radisson Hotel in Glasgow. You can find out more by visiting the Scottish Event Awards website.

Voting has finished now but let’s hope as the event certainly deserves such recognition!

Disciplinary Action

Unfortunately, a case arose earlier in the year whereby a person did not follow the rules laid down by an event organiser. The person proceeded to take a dog to an event where the organiser and his team had gone to considerable lengths to spell out that dogs were forbidden on the estate being used.

Access for the event had been agreed with the owner on the basis that dogs were forbidden on all estate land. The land in question is clearly land we will want to use for orienteering again and the situation that arose could have soured the relationship with the land owner preventing future use of the land for orienteering.

Please remind your members that they need to read event instructions, and the bulletin if there is one, and follow the instructions provided. If an organiser has ruled that ‘No Dogs’ are allowed that must be followed.

For organisers of events it’s worth noting that for this event the team had done everything they could to make this fact known and the only ‘learning point’ was to consider offering some instructions about what a dog owner should do – for instance, leave dogs at home or speak with the organiser to see if any alternatives are feasible, failing that perhaps this event isn’t for you.

Scottish 6 Days

As you know the Scottish 6 Days is in Royal Deeside next year; you can find further information at: http://www.scottish6days.com/2017

It’s pretty clear that if you can get relatively new-to-orienteering families to come to an event like the Six Days you’ll probably get them hooked for life.  If new members think it “isn’t for them” because it’s too serious or you really have to be good/experienced to go, then please correct them. Despite there being 3-5,000 competitors the event has a friendly family feeling and a fantastic ‘buzz’ about it. If new-comers can be tempted to go, they often find that the atmosphere plus 6 days of orienteering really improves their orienteering particularly with all the participant talk around the event.  The overseas participants and families really add to the atmosphere and hopefully by the end of the event the new-comers are more experienced and have caught the orienteering ‘bug’ for keeps.

For families, taking holidays around an event such as the S6Ds can really give a holiday purpose, shape and a sense of adventure – as well as taking them to a fantastic part of the UK.

The Orienteering Foundation – News

Trustee Vacancy
The Orienteering Foundation has a vacancy for a new Trustee and is particularly interested in recruiting someone from the North-West or Scotland. A full list of current Trustees is on the web site at www.orienteeringfoundation.org.uk

Orienteering Foundation grant applications
Grant applications are now accepted quarterly by 31 March, 30 June, 30 September and 31 December each year. It is hoped this will make it easier for applicants and also avoid the Trustees having to deal with applications outside their normal meeting cycle. The grant application form can be found on the web site at http://www.orienteeringfoundation.org.uk   New applications need to be made by 30 September 2016 so that they can be considered at the next Trustee meeting on 12 October.

Orienteering Foundation proactive approach to grants
The Trustees of the Orienteering Foundation (www.orienteeringfoundation.org.uk) are concerned that the previous approach to awarding grants relied solely on applications being made, which may have resulted in some potentially worthwhile innovations not being attempted as no-one has proposed a relevant project.  The Trustees are now interested in hearing from individuals, clubs or other organisations about projects or initiatives they would like to see the Foundation sponsoring or supporting. There is no commitment that whoever proposes such a project needs to be involved in implementing it, although they would be involved if they wished to be.

As an example, the Trustees feel that there might be demand for organising a series of adult coaching sessions, particularly for those who were relatively new to orienteering.  A project could be supported to seek a volunteer or paid part-time person to organise, publicise and run such sessions in one or more areas of the country in liaison with the relevant club(s). The Foundation (admin@orienteeringfoundation.org.uk) would be delighted to hear views on that project or ideas for other projects.

Neil Cameron, Chair, The Orienteering Foundation

Coaching Conference 2017

Outline details - book the date in your calendar NOW!

• Date: 14th & 15th January 2017: 11am start Saturday, finish 5pm; Sunday 9am start, finish 1pm after lunch. CE, IV, Assessors have a session after lunch Sunday (finish approx. 4pm); if you wish to continue to be a Coach educator / Assessor / Internal verifier then you must attend this session. If you are interested in becoming a CE, IV or Assessor you are welcome to come along.

• Location: Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), Cheshire Campus in Crewe. This is convenient to the train station and several 'budget' hotels. Delegates should book their own accommodation for the conference.

• Co-ordinator: Vicky Thornton

• Theme, speakers & seminars / activities: this is currently being worked on and will be detailed in an article in the Autumn edition of 'Focus'.

• Booking will be confirmed in the Autumn 'Focus'.

• maps will possibly be available of Crewe Park in advance for those who would like informal run in the park Saturday am.

• Catering during the conference will be provided by MMU and included in the conference fee

• Cost: this will be confirmed before bookings open.

Independent Director Appointment

The recruiting of two independent directors has now finished. John Flook was reappointed for a second term and we will shortly be able to let you know who the successful candidate for the third and final independent director position is. There was considerable interest in the positions with a short list being produced and interviews taking place in Birmingham. We’d like to publicly thank Vijaya Panangipalli and John Hurley for joining Judith Holt, Chair of British Orienteering, on the Appointments Panel. Vijaya is the Governance Manager at Sport and Recreation Alliance and John the Chair of East Midlands Orienteering Association. The association chair role on the Appointments Panel rotates around the 12 regional associations of British Orienteering and it was the turn of EMOA in 2016. Judith, chairing the Appointments Panel, reported that she was most appreciative of the different knowledge and perspectives the two panel members brought to the task.

An announcement about the 2 appointments will be published shortly on the British Orienteering website.

British Orienteering Website

Lots of work has taken place over the summer and we have now agreed the basic design for the website. A development site has been established and the public facing part of the website is under development.

The website will be split into a public facing website and a section for members. The public section will be less wordy and more attractive to a wider group of people whilst the members section will contain the resources etc for our volunteers such as coaches and event officials. Members will need to login to reach resources and volunteer support pages. If you or other members of your club are a current member and do not know your login details, please click on the ‘Forgotten login details’ on the home page of the website.

Work will now progress quite quickly and we hope to have something for you to look at later in October.

I’ll continue to keep you updated as changes become ready to roll out.

Images & Image Taking

Just in case you missed the update which was published in July.

The regulations have been completely rewritten and should, I hope, make far more sense and be easier to ‘police’. These regulations also supersede the Headcams statement ‘Headcams and other wearable cams’, banning the use of headcams, dated 12 July 2016.

The full document can be viewed here.

Brian Porteous, Elected Life President of the IOF

I make no apologies for repeating the news item regarding Brian.

Brian Porteous has been elected by the unanimous vote of the General Assembly as an Honorary Life President of the International Orienteering Federation.

Brian Porteous, President of the International Orienteering Federation chaired his final General Assembly meeting on Friday 26 August 2016.  It was here that Brian Porteous was elected by the unanimous vote of the General Assembly as an Honorary Life President of the International Orienteering Federation.

Brian was delighted to be awarded the IOFS gold pin and then shocked and humbled to be elected by the unanimous vote of the General Assembly as an Honorary Life President of the International Orienteering Federation.

Brian Porteous, HONORARY LIFE PRESIDENT of International Orienteering Federation said: “I was greatly honoured to receive the International Orienteering Federation Gold Pin in recognition of my efforts and absolutely flabbergasted when my successor Leho Haldna from Estonia went on to propose that I be elected as an Honorary International Orienteering Federation (IOF) President for Life. This was unanimously accepted by the General Assembly.”

Brian continued: “This is too an honour for British Orienteering as it recognises the support they have given to me and to other members of the International Orienteering Federation Commissions over the years.  I would like to give my sincere thanks for making it possible for me to contribute to the growth of our great sport around the world over these past 14 years.”

There are only two other existing Honorary Life Presidents of the International Orienteering Federation – Sue Harvey and Ake Jacobsen.  This is a singular and special honour.

Control Descriptions Review

For those of you involved in event planning and controlling, the IOF Rules Commission have been working on a revision of the IOF Control Descriptions. Please read the summary of the proposed changes, including changes which have been considered but rejected here.

Best wishes,

Mike

'More People, More Places, More Podiums'

For further information about orienteering please visit www.britishorienteering.org.uk